With former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal held responsible in the Justice (retd) Ranjit Singh Commission report on the 2015 sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent firing in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators sought exemplary punishment for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and his son Sukhbir Badal, the then Home Minister.

During a discussion on the report, tabled in the House on Monday, on Tuesday, Congress legislator Harminder Singh Gill said former CM Badal and police officers involved in the firing should be given exemplary punishment for preventing such incidents in future.

Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said SAD president Sukhbir should be given life imprisonment for his involvement in the sacrilege cases in order to divert the public attention months ahead of 2017 Assembly polls.

He said then CM Badal and Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini should also be booked for the firing incident in which two anti-sacrilege Sikh protestors.

Former Bharatiya Janata Party member and Congress minister Navjot Singh Sidhu lashed out at former state Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and compared him to British officer General Dyer who had ordered the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

In a serious allegation, Sidhu claimed that Badal had finalised a deal of Rs 100 crore while sitting in Mumbai to facilitate the release of former Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s film. He asked an account of the money from Badal. The Punjab minister also claimed that he has proof against the Badal family.

Sidhu said the sacrilege cases were part of a political conspiracy by the SAD to polarise the votes ahead of Assembly polls and it was CM Badal who ordered firing on the peaceful protestors.

Former leader of Opposition and AAP leader, HS Phoolka said the sacrilege incidents in Punjab were orchestrated by Dera Sacha Sauda followers and the sect’s head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh should also be booked for the same.

The report submitted by the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) commission into sacrilege incidents and subsequent police firing in 2015 in Punjab was tabled in the Assembly on Monday. Its supplementary report had stated that the then CM Badal had ordered police action against anti-sacrilege protesters.

Protesting the report, the SAD MLAs staged a walk out on Tuesday and also alleged that they were given very less time to debate it. “We were allotted a mere 14 minutes for the debate on such an important issue. The Congress knows that it would have been exposed if we had been given more time,” SAD president and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said.

The report was prepared by the Commission that CM Amarinder Singh had constituted.

The report also claims that Parkash Sigh Badal and his son Sukhbir secured Akal Takht’s pardon for Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in September 2015 to facilitate the release of the sect head’s movie. It has also put Sukhbir, the then home minister, in the dock for “showing no involvement and seriousness” in solving sacrilege cases.